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Since we’ve covered a few of these destinations previously, I’ll try not to waffle on too much (mmm waffles)…

We arrive into Narita exhausted after a grueling 12hours in transit (hooray cheap flights -__-‘ ), so instead of messing about with multiple trains into Tokyo and back out to Yokohama, we chose the limo bus service which is a direct run to Yokohama CAT (city air terminal). It also runs about every 15min so no sweat if you miss one.

Travel tip: tickets for the bus are available at the airport via the respective counter or vending machine, the kind staff will even draw you a map of how to get to the bus stop.

Travel tip: the airport is also a good place to get your Suica card (if you don’t already have one) and to break some big notes so you can begin hoarding coins for the inevitable vending machine purchases.

The ride takes about 90min which isn’t very scenic at night but you might be lucky enough to spy some boy racers channelling Fast and Furious/Need for Speed on the freeways.

We stayed at the Richmond Hotel in Otamachi which ticked our usual holiday accommodation boxes of price and location. Bashamichi station is a couple stops from Yokohama station and then it’s a short walk to the hotel.
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Richmond Hotel full review here

The Richmond is one of the better value hotels in the central Yokohama area, we chose it because of its walkable proximity to the bay area attractions, Chinatown and transport. From Narita we took a limo bus directly to Yokohama Station, from there its only a couple stops to Bashamichi station on the Minato Mirai line. Take the south east exit (there’s a big map of the surrounding area on the upper level of the station), this will pop you out at a large intersection with “life saving” Lawsons diagonally behind you. Head straight down this small scenic street (full of restaurants and even a Gold’s gym), stay on the right side, after about 6 (small) streets you’ll see it on your right, cant miss it. If you see a Family mart across the road, stop! You’ve literally just walked past it 😉
The walk takes about 5-10min with suitcases and a toddler (:
If you walk in the other direction (north east) out of the station you will get to the World Porters shopping mall (hello Teddy’s Bigger Burgers!), Cosmo World fun park, Cup Noodles museum and the harbour itself. Its only about 1km from the bay to the hotel which is nice for an evening stroll.

The area around the hotel was reasonably quiet by our standards, yes there are restaurants and a couple bars that are open later but no hordes of rowdy people milling in the streets or loud music.

The hotel itself is great, ample room by Japanese standards but if you’re one of those people that go on holidays to stay in your room (why, I don’t know), spend (much) more and look elsewhere. Regular double room was big enough for our two suitcases and a pop up sleeper for our toddler with room to get around those things.
Service was equally good, standard Japanese efficiency and friendliness. Even when we opted for no turn down service they still left a bag with bottles of water and extra towels just in case.

The breakfast buffet is at the hotel’s shared restaurant which leans more towards Asian style than Western – which is limited to chipotles, dinner rolls and scramble eggs. If you don’t mind both, like trying new things or have it included in your room cost then its worth a try otherwise you’ll find better value at the many other options nearby eg. Pork buns from Family mart 😉

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Travel tip: If you’re looking for mobile data while in Japan, I couldn’t fault a 14 day vistor’s sim from B-mobile for about 2200Y. Usage limits to 1Gb per 3 days so no p2p or streaming but more than enough data for map reading and social media brags 😉 Though if you’re using AirBnB most will offer a free portable wifi hotspot which you can take out and about with you. Note: these will have usage limits and from our experience were a little patchy with service at times and would also occasionally drop the hotspot connection.
UPDATE: check the bmobile site, their plans have since changed

—-Mitsui Outlet
This has been on our to do list for the last couple trips but since it was a little bit further out in the opposite direction of our other activities we’re only just getting to it now.

Getting there:
The website provides everything you need including travel options. For us it was a short walk south from the hotel to Kannai station, change at Shin Sugita and Torihama then a short walk, past the cutest bunch of little baseballers ever, to the mall. It is located on the bay so you get a lovely seaside vibe on a sunny Sunday morning.

The layout of the complex takes advantage of this and is mostly outdoors with covered verandas and boardwalks. The stores cover the usual big name brands including Adidas, Asics, Reebok, Beams, Timberland, Levis and XLarge/Xgirl, most offering a tax free option for tourists.

There is also a water play area and simple side show alley style games for kids in the central “town square” area. A large carousel and roaming churro vendors add to the carnival vibe.

—-Chinatown
We stopped into Chinatown on the return journey, it was far bigger than we expected, covering more than just a couple streets and blocks. It is however what you would expect from any such place around the world, food and plenty of it with a side of bargain shopping and haggling. If you haven’t eaten that day, grab a pork bun the size of your head to tie you over till dinner 😉

Being on a tight schedule we only walked the main street but you could easily spend the better part of a day exploring all the side alleys here.

—-Cup Noodle Museum
Another illusive attraction we missed previously, but not this time! Being an all ages (targeting mostly children) theme park it was the usual mix of kids everywhere and lines a plenty to queue at, that said, most lines moved quickly and kids are conveniently knee height (j/k :p ). The build your own noodle cup area was especially deafening with hoards of school excursion kids but it added to the whole feel of a busy production line, which roughly follows:

1. Sterilise your hands and take a cup
2. Cup custom area – you can go to town drawing your own designs on the cup
3. Pick and choose bar – staff fill the cup with noodles and your choice of flavourings before sealing and shrink wrapping.
4. Bagging station – you construct an ingeniously design balloon bag to safely transport your noodle cup home. (Aussie travellers – remember to declare this when coming through customs)

Venturing to other (much quieter) floors in the building sees a more traditional museum layout with noodle history, flavours and of course lots of cup noodles.

Travel tip:
Groups are let in at a scheduled time to avoid overcrowding, you can choose your preferred time when purchasing tickets. If you plan on making a day of it, register for a noodle making class as well!
Note: Commentary is in full Japanese and only some staff speak a little English.

We finally finished off the day with Teddy’s Bigger Burgers at World Porter’s then a nice evening stroll back to the hotel.

Travel tip: Best time to visit World Porter’s is in the late afternoon, crowds are very sparse and the food court is quite deserted.

Coming up next, we make our way to the Fuji 5 lakes area via our fave Gotemba outlet mall.

Big Fish Little Fish Family Rave events finally made their way to Brisbane with old school rave legends Binary Finary in tow. The event was complete with arts, craft, face painting and of course, lots of hands in the air dancing! If you have kids that need to burn off some energy, we seriously recommend getting along to the next one! Smiles for miles and fun for everyone!

Wow, what a night! Sure we’ve got decades of love for G-Shock and may be a little bias but the night couldn’t have been any less than perfect! So much delicious Asian street food from Tsuru, social lubricate from Kirin, indoor/outdoor venue at The Sheds for the perfect (last day of) spring night and of course the warm hospitality of Jo and the rest of the awesome team at G-Shock Australia.

We were also treated to a talk from Mr. G himself, Kikuo Ibe which included a demonstration of the renowned shock protection with him spectacularly pegging the DW5600 watch off his wrist at a solid sheet of metal! He also unveiled a pair of “yea, we’re just showing off now” all sapphire crystal outer GW5600’s, said to cost around $100,000 each and take about a month to make. Also on display was an Aussie exclusive collab with creative all rounder TA-KU with his take on the humble DW5600 square (DW5600TA-KU-1D) along side the current line up of 35th anniversary releases with the Big Bang Black and Golden Tornado series.

Coincidentally it was pretty much 2 years to the day since our last G-Shock event outing for the Sneaker Freaker collab release and so far judging from the infallible track record, we simple can not wait till the next one!

Check out the full gallery below!

Aussie collectors, enthusiasts or if you simply want more info, a legit check, ideas for sneaker pairings 😉 or just want to chat, head on over to @theGcollective on Facebook and instagram for your dose of G related content. Also don’t forget to follower G-Shock Australia for official news straight from the source.

So about 10 years ago, it was a very sad day when Brisbane’s drum and bass institution, Rudebwoyz decided to retire from its years of monthly nights, leaving us and many others sad but our livers quite relieved. Fast forward a decade and with a blessing from the bass gods the event was relaunched and it was like it never left! ..all we had to do was walk a couple doors down to the new venue at Capulet 😉

After 16 years of reaching for the lasers, dancing on podiums, everything from hardcore to DnB to RnB in the pod, warm water taps and crammed cuddles in the furry egg, Family finally ended its reign as one of Brisbane’s prolific clubs and has been reincarnated as Ei8ht. Having spent so much time dancing and photographing there it wasn’t an easy task to trawl through the mountain of photo archives… so I didn’t :p Instead, just cherry picking a handful of the biggest most memorable events that have photographic evidence.

Big Sound engulfed the valley once again and as always delivered everything from RnB and soul to indie rock and metal. With such a huge lineup over the three days its impossible to catch everyone but we managed to get to OKbadlands, Maribelle, Tia Gostelow and The Beautiful Monument.

We’re going to start things off a little different this time since this holiday we had a little plus one accompanying us. In this post we’ll share some tips and our experiences travelling to Japan with a toddler.

If you’re considering doing the same then good on you! The first step is recognising a child is an addition to a family not something the family revolves around (even though sometimes it feels like it does!) in turn restricting fun things you would normally do. Secondly, they usually fly for “free” so it’s a no brainer, right?! 😀
Travel tip: Each airline is different, Jetstar’s definition of “free” is thirty-something dollars, not sure what that covers exactly though…

There are plenty of excellent blogs on flying with a toddler so we wont regurgitate it all but here’s a quick run down of what worked for us.

The Gear:

It really depends where you’re going and what you plan on doing, some people say carrier all the way for hands free-dom while others prefer a leisurely pace and their own shopping trolley with a pram/stroller. Our itinerary covered a lot of ground from shopping mall outlets to flower parks to mountain hikes, cable cars and snow fields so we didn’t take any chances, we took a framed hiking backpack, a cheap umbrella stroller and the ol faithful Ergobaby carrier.

Little Life Ultralight backpack – framed with built in seat
This backpack was on loan (thanks Glenys!) – its very comfortable for the wearer and the kidlet for long periods of time and a nice high viewing position for those curious kids that want to be part of everything. A small drawback however is with the seating position, the child sits slightly further back and can lean back a little as opposed to the full koala hug position of the Ergobaby, more comfort to them but not so much for the wearer. Having the weight positioned a bit further from the center of gravity takes a bit getting used to, but leaning forward quickly becomes second nature. The pack is also small enough for carry on luggage so you can use it to and from the boarding gates.

Dymples Easy Stroller
We looked at several of the cheapies from Kmart, Big W, Target, Toys R Us and online, all were very similar in style, build quality, weight (took the travel scale to confirm 😉 ) and price but Big W’s offering won out as being one of the lightest at just over 4kg, but more so due to it being the only one (at the time of purchasing) that had a small mesh basket area underneath. Yes it was small and almost useless but it was still big enough to stow (re: jam) a couple hoodies, rain ponchos, snacks, extra water and compact tripod. Couple it with a bottle caddy from one of our other prams and it was a perfect workhorse for only $25. We also invested a few bucks and grabbed a carry case off ebay for airline and hotel transits. Not only does it make it easier to carry, it keeps the wheels from getting caught and broken on …well, just about anything and everything during transit (no thanks to the gentle caressing hands of luggage handlers :p ).
The stroller worked well through shopping districts like Harajuku and outlet malls, also spared our backs for times we didn’t want to carry the hiking pack.

Ergo Baby Carrier
We were beginning to think if buying one of these was really worth it since our kidlet had spent very little time in it but it was perfect for strapping her in to encourage naps during flights, transit and general long days. It was also great for “travel light” days where it could be tucked into a backpack and brought out after she got tired of running around.

Note: you will have to remove baby and the carrier when passing through customs (even if your babe has only just gotten to sleep after struggling for hours! >_< ) The carrier has to go in a tray with your other belongings to be scanned.

In The Suitcase:

Apart from the usual things, we loaded up on nappies and formula (triple zippy bagged – you don’t want that to pop open in your bag during compression on the flight!). We could have bought both over there but it was much easier to stick with what we knew both for comfort and no allergic reaction. Plus, they both diminished as the trip went on so we could replace that space with holiday loot! We also packed her fave packet meals and snacks for emergency/on the fly (literally) eats and took a separate “go bag” to carry on board essentials instead of having to sift through the carry on while everyone is trying to get to their seats or during the flight. You’re welcome fellow passengers! 😉

Finding essentials:

Depending on your stay/luggage size you will probably eventually run out of one thing or another, now, if you’ve been doing a bit of research you’ve probably come across reports that its impossible to find baby products especially nappies and formula in Japan, well consider that myth busted. Even though we had our supplies we kept an eye open for places that would sell them and were mostly spoiled by choice in all major cities/stations. There is always a discount pharmacy some where nearby, very similar to Chemist Warehouse where everything is always on sale with bright coloured signs and shelf tickets galore. Most of these places were tax free for tourists as well. So basically only if you go off the beaten track to small towns or stations in residential areas will you have problems finding supplies, but even if you do, just track down a supermarket and itll be just like home.

One thing however, that is hard to find, is regular cow’s milk (and crunchy peanut butter!). Selected big convenience stores might have some but generally only stock some weird stuff that looks like milk but smells and tastes like a combination of soy and Yakult! Using your google text translator wont help you much either as a lot of the time it translates to “milk”. This is where the bags of formula come in handy, unless you’re after some for a tea or coffee then have your hotel or Airbnb host rustle some up for you if you get stuck.

Sleeping arrangements:

We thought we had it all sorted beforehand, grab a cheap little pop up tent style sleeping bed like this, get the bub used to it at home with day naps with her sleep buddies and away we go! Good in theory but it seems we brought Murphy’s law with us and the first night in a strange place with some chronic jetlag, thanks to 12 hours of transit, equates to one tired and stressed kid that didn’t want a bar of it. It took a couple nights of trial and error to realise all she wanted was a bed to call her own. So it turns out that it was just a matter of sorting a couple extra blankets and pillows as barricades for when she got her roll on and the rest was slumber city.

Another plus, she also worked out that her regular routine was out the window and any time was a good time for a nap for which the carrier and stroller came in very handy. We also encouraged naps on any train ride more than 15min for little refreshes through out the day. All in all, its really no different than travelling anywhere with a child, you have to be flexible, ready to roll with the punches and know when to quit while you’re behind and fight another day.

I think that’s about it, now on with the rest of the trip, first up, Yokohoma!